The show - Freshers - which has been dubbed on campus as "the real-life Fresh Meat" is focusing on 12 students and their first term at university.

The students featured all live together under one roof and have been selected to show specific social backgrounds including the first in their family to attend higher education.

As well as sex and personal relationships the show will look at the financial pressures facing modern students and the trials and tribulations of living away from home for the first and having to meet assignment deadlines.

The students all come from Leicester University and the production team have worked on shows such as Educating Essex and 24 Hours in A&E.

One student said: "A lot of it is about relationships between students and how they get on with each other.

"The production team can see text messages and pictures the students send and receive and listen to messages they leave and phone calls they make.

"Everyone knows what students get up to when they first move away from home so there is plenty of tears and a fair amount of material which will shock parents.

"It's a bit like the comedy Fresh Meat which obviously shows some of the more unsavoury and entertaining aspects of student life."

The majority of filming for the show has already finished and it is scheduled to air later in 2014 in four, one hour long, episodes.

A Channel Four spokesman said: "This is a groundbreaking observational documentary series employing a brand new technological innovation which enables students to share their digital lives, giving us a real insight into how they live and relate to one another in the 'real' world and online.

"By loaning phones to 12 students for the duration of filming - the phones were returned at the end of filming - we have empowered a highly media-literate generation to contribute some of their own material to the series and create a new relationship between documentary makers and their contributors."

Channel 4 has recently been criticised over the making of it's hit documentary series Benefits Street after their were claims the programme exploited vulnerable members of society.

The show was dogged by controversy, with critics labelling it "poverty porn", and complaints from people who claimed they were tricked into taking part.

It polarised opinion between those who believed it victimised people on benefits and those who claimed it highlighted the flaws in the welfare state.

However Channel 4 are keen to stress they are making the show with the full-co-operation of those involved.

The spokesman added: "All the students who agreed to take part only did so after extensive briefing and consultation and both their parents and the University of Leicester were involved in this process.

"They all gave full and informed consent for their social media and digital usage to be shared with the production team, and they will all be shown the series and any social media or digital data featuring in it before it is broadcast."

Leicester University said: "The University has agreed to work with Channel 4 to produce a series about student life on campus. 'Students' (working title) will follow a group of first year students with a diverse range of aspirations, backgrounds and academic interests over their first two terms at Leicester.

"The series will cover all aspects of contemporary student life, and filming has taken place across the main campus and student halls."